Open Letter to Hon Mark Mitchell: Time to Dump Sport NZ’s Guiding Principles for Transgender Inclusion
- Ro Edge
- Jul 8
- 3 min read
8th July 2025
Attention: Hon Mark Mitchell
Minister for Sport and Recreation
Open Letter: Time to Dump Sport NZ’s Guiding Principles for Transgender Inclusion
Dear Minister,
We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the ongoing delays in updating Sport New Zealand’s Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport, and to request that you act decisively to dump these guidelines as they are no longer necessary.
On 7 October 2024, the former Sports and Recreation Minister, Chris Bishop, directed Sport NZ CEO Raelene Castle to update the guidelines to prioritise fairness and safety. However, as of 7 July 2025— nine months later—no updates have been released, nor has consultation with stakeholders, including Save Women’s Sport Australasia, commenced. This delay persists despite Sport NZ’s assurance in their recent OIA response that the finalised guidelines would be released last month, which you will find attached.
We are concerned that Sport NZ’s inability to revise the Guiding Principles in a timely manner stems from the document’s ideological foundation, which prioritizes transgender inclusion and affirmation above all else. We believe this framework is fundamentally incompatible with the directive to prioritise fairness and safety, as it cannot adequately address the need to protect the integrity of the female category while ensuring equitable and safe participation for all athletes.
The landscape of transgender inclusion in sport has evolved significantly since the Guiding Principles were first introduced. At that time, they aimed to provide guidance to sports grappling with inclusion policies. However, most international sporting federations have since updated their eligibility criteria to balance inclusion with fairness and safety, typically enabling transgender athletes to compete in the category aligned with their biological sex or in mixed-sex teams. Last month the International Olympic Committee announced they will take a leading role in protecting the female category. Given this global shift, Sport NZ’s Guiding Principles are now outdated and redundant. Their continued existence creates unnecessary conflict for national sporting bodies, particularly those reliant on Sport NZ funding, who may feel pressured to adopt these guidelines despite their misalignment with international federation policies.
Dumping the Guiding Principles would empower New Zealand’s national sporting bodies to adopt their international federations’ guidelines, ensuring consistency, fairness, and safety across all levels of sport. This step would also align with your government’s coalition agreement with NZ First, which commits to ensuring that publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition uncompromised by rules relating to gender. With your term now halfway through, and despite Minister Bishop’s commitment in June 2024 to uphold this agreement, we are concerned that progress remains stalled. Retaining the Guiding Principles risks undermining this commitment, leaving female athletes vulnerable to unfair and unsafe competition conditions.
Fairness, safety, and the integrity of the female category are critical at every level of sport. We urge your government to act decisively by dumping Sport NZ’s Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport, thereby enabling national sporting bodies to align with global standards and fulfil your coalition’s promise to prioritise fair competition.
We look forward to your response and to working with your office to ensure that New Zealand’s sporting policies reflect the values of fairness and safety for all athletes, particularly female competitors.
Kind regards
Ro Edge & Candice Riley
New Zealand Spokeswomen
Save Women’s Sport Australasia
